How Love Began
by EverlastingEvanescence
Summary: It all started as a meeting to get Bakugo's gauntlets working again. Over time, they would eventually come to care for each other, and by the time the week was over, they would wonder how they ever lived without each other. Another Katsuki Bakugo x Mei Hatsume fanfic. Also, credit to KatMagnet on DeviantArt for making the cover. She's awesome and be sure to take a look at her art
1. Chapter 1

How Love Began

Mei Hatsume was in the workshop at UA High, fixing a batch of her robots, or 'babies' as she called them, that broke during hero training. She had been personally assigned by the Heroes working at UA High to make inventions like the weight bracelets that were used in the final exams. Ever since then, Mei had been working pretty much nonstop in the workshop, which was fine with her.

As Mei was finalizing the next upgrades in her test dummies, she heard her door slam open. Mei jumped before looking at the door, revealing the fiery tempered Katsuki Bakugo. He was still in his superhero costume, but he was holding one of his grenade shaped gauntlets in his left hand.

"Are you one of the nerds that work here?" Bakugo asked, placing his gauntlet on the table that Hatsume was working on.

"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" Hatsume countered, with her arms crossed in front of her chest, much like the expression on her face. Bakugo rolled his eyes, before knocking on the table.

"Anyway, one of my gauntlets isn't working. It stopped working during training and I need it fixed," Bakugo said, pointing to the gauntlet on the table. Hatsume looked at the outside of the gauntlet.

"Well, what happened?" Hatsume asked, while still looking over the gauntlet.

"I have no idea. I was in the middle of a fight with the robots, and when I tried to shoot a giant explosion, all I got was a fucking sparkler show, and got me attacked," Bakugo explained while Mei picked up the gauntlet and grabbed her tools. Bakugo took a seat on chair nearby, and took his phone out.

After half an hour, Bakugo looked up from his phone, and saw that Mei was still looking through his gauntlet. Bakugo, who was starting to become impatient, decided to take a break from his phone and go to where Mei was working. Bakugo looked at the gauntlet with Mei, trying to see what she was looking at. When Mei turned and saw Bakugo, she slightly jumped, and moved to the edge of the table.

"Uh excuse me! I don't need any help when it comes to machines," Mei exclaimed, sticking her nose up.

"Well clearly you do, because you're taking for-fucking-ever to fix it!" Bakugo argued, getting in her face. However, Mei didn't budge, and pushed Bakugo away from her.

"My job requires patience so that I can get all the details I need about what I'm working with and so I could ensure that I could fix the right thing, and not make it worse. I'm making sure I look through every nook and cranny to make sure that I don't miss anything. Now either sit down and shut the hell up, or you can have someone else fix it!" Mei exclaimed, waving a screwdriver in Bakugo's face. Bakugo looked at Mei with his eyes wide open and veins on his temples bursting. Before he could scream at her, Mei went back to working on his gauntlet. Bakugo, instead of screaming decided to go back to his seat.

"So…you were in the Sports Festival, right?" Bakugo asked, looking away from Mei. Mei stopped working briefly and looked at Bakugo with a raised eyebrow.

"Where did that come from?" Mei asked.

"I was just trying to start some conversation. You got a problem with that!?" Bakugo exclaimed.

"No, but that was kind of an odd topic to bring up, apropos of nothing related to the Sports Festival happening," Mei explained, leaving Bakugo slightly flustered.

"Well…it's the only thing I could think of. It was where I had one of the biggest accomplishments of my life when I won first place," Bakugo responded, with an air of ego surrounding himself as he brought up his victory.

"I remember that. Well, more so the fact that you were tied up like an animal," Mei said with a smirk, trying to hold in her giggling.

"Hey shut up! It was that Icy-Hot bastard's fault for not bringing his A-game to our fight. He brought his…B+ game, and it pissed me off!" Bakugo yelled, with memories of that battle swarming back into his mind. Mei rolled her eyes with a smile on her face while she was taking the outer layer of Bakugo's gauntlet off.

"Despite that, you did amazing throughout that whole tournament. That quirk of yours is pretty great too," Mei responded.

"Well, you weren't that bad yourself. I love what you did to Glasses in your match," Bakugo said, chuckling a small bit at the memory of his bespectacled classmate Tenya Iida being forced to advertise Mei's inventions.

"Thank you, and that boy served as the perfect subject to show off my amazing babies! You have no idea how many emails I've gotten from support companies who want to work with me," Mei said with pride oozing out of her voice.

"Well, I can't say that you didn't deserve it," Bakugo responded before a thought entered his head that he never really thought about until now. "Speaking of your match, why did you just walk out?"

"Well, I got my babies seen by all the major support companies so I didn't see why I needed to continue," Mei explained, still looking through the inside of the gauntlet with a pair of tweezers.

"But why would you enter something and not want to win first place?" Bakugo asked completely shocked by her admission.

"I mean, I'm not much of a fighter, and a lot of those guys in the tourney like you, Todoroki, Midoriya, and Tokoyami are fighters who could probably kill me if you wanted to. Plus, my mission was already accomplished, so I didn't want to get some battle damage for nothing," Mei further explained. The two sat in silence, with Bakugo being unable to say anything about that. The silence went on for five minutes, before Mei put the gauntlet on another table.

"Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I figured out what's wrong with your gauntlet. There are a couple of tubes that are cut in the middle. You were spilling your nitroglycerin like sweat…"

"Wait, how do you know that? I never told you about my quirk," Bakugo asked with an annoyed tone to his voice.

"Well, I do research on everyone in UA so I can help them to the best of my abilities. Anyway, you were accidently spilling your sweat all over the inside of your gauntlet, and that's why your explosions didn't work," Mei continued, with an accomplished smile on her face.

"Alright, so what's the bad news?" Bakugo asked.

"Well, I don't have the right tubes to fix it. They have to be a specific size or else you could either wind up blowing your arm off, or not having enough power for an explosion. I have to find the right size, and make sure that it's the right make as well," Mei explained. Bakugo looked at her with his eyes wide open, and his mouth agape. He wanted to shout something at her, but for some reason couldn't find the words.

"So if you want, you can come back tomorrow, and I can show you the ones that you'll need from now on so that you can be well informed for the future," Mei suggested. Bakugo looked at her, and saw from the window that the sun was going down before letting out a long sigh.

"Alright, I'll come back tomorrow, but there damn well better be some progress made, or else shit is gonna go down," Bakugo threatened, with Mei once again not being intimidated in the slightest. Mei smirked, and pet Bakugo on the head, rubbing her fingers through his spiky blonde hair.

"I look forward to it," Mei said in a sing-song tone before making a 'shooing' motion with her hands. Bakugo stomped out of the workshop with a light blush on his face.

'That stupid bitch! Who the hell does she think she is shooing me like that!?' Bakugo yelled in his mind, being unable to get the pink haired inventor out of his head. He shook his head, and started heading to his room, hoping that he could calm down and get some sleep before tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Next Day…**

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T HAVE THE FUCKING TUBES!?" Bakugo screamed at Mei, who had the gauntlet in her hands.

"I mean that I don't have them. I ordered them last night, and they won't be here until Friday. So you need to be patient and wait until Friday for your gauntlet to get fixed properly," Mei explained, which did nothing to assuage Bakugo.

"I don't wanna wait until freakin' Friday! I want my gauntlets fixed now!" Bakugo argued, explosions popping in his hands.

"Well too bad. In all facets of life, you have to be patient and realize that not everything can be done on your schedule. So you need to calm down and get the hell over it," Mei told him sternly, poking him in the chest with her pointer finger. Bakugo just stared at her for a few seconds with a glare, before turning his face away from her with a 'tsk'.

"God, you sound like Goddamn Best Jeanist," Bakugo mumbled, remembering his time with the Number 4 hero in the world.

"Wait, you know Best Jeanist?" Mei asked, her curiosity peaked.

"Yeah, I volunteered with him for my internship. It was boring as hell. I didn't get to fight, I got a shitty haircut, got made fun of by some little brats, and just walked around town with Best Jeanist telling me how to do fucking everything like I didn't know anything," Bakugo soliloquized, his distaste for his internship being clearly displayed.

"It sounds like that he was trying to teach you some valuable lessons," Mei responded.

"Well, I didn't want his damn lessons. I wanted to kick some villain ass!" Bakugo countered. Mei rolled her eyes and went back to her desk.

"Well, I feel kind of bad for wasting your time, so I'll tell you what. Tell me what you want to add to your gauntlet, and I'll make the upgrades," Mei offered, with stars in her eyes. Bakugo was about to reject her offer, but then he thought about it, and thought of all the possibilities that upgrades could give him and his battles.

"You got yourself a deal, Weird Eyes," Bakugo said, grabbing her hand and giving it a rather forceful shake.

"…Weird Eyes?"

"Yeah, I give people nicknames, and that's yours," Bakugo explained.

"You know, you could just call me Hatsume, or Mei. You don't have to give me a stupid nickname," Mei countered.

"Well, that's too bad because I'm gonna keep calling you Weird Eyes. So you're gonna have to deal with it," Bakugo retorted. Hatsume stared at him for a couple of minutes, before shaking her head.

"Whatever. Just get out of here and come here tomorrow with a list of things that you want me to add," Hatsume said, turning her back to Bakugo so that she could go back to working at the table. However, instead of living, Bakugo got closer to her, to the point where their faces were only centimeters apart.

"H..H..HEY, WHAT THE H…HELL…ARE…YOU DOING!?" Hatsume screeched in a panic while a bright pink blush started to grow on her face.

"You know, I love a woman who can order me around," Bakugo whispered in Hatsume's ear with a smirk on his face. He got closer, looking as if he was going to kiss her. Hatsume started frantically looking around with the blush on her face still very much visible, trying to think of something to do. Before she could do anything however, she heard Bakugo chuckling. Bakugo backed away from Hatsume before he started laughing uncontrollably.

"Oh my God, you should've seen the look on your face! You were blushing and stammering, it was fucking hilarious!" Bakugo screamed out while he was laughing and banging his fist on the work table. Hatsume, still recovering from her nerves, threw a monkey wrench at Bakugo's head.

"Asshole!" Hatsume yelled, shaking her head in an attempt to get rid of her blush. Bakugo got up, seemingly not angry about the monkey wrench hitting him on the head, and jokingly blew a kiss to her.

"See ya tomorrow, Hatsu-chan," Bakugo said in a fake cutesy voice, before laughing even more than before.

"Shut up!" Hatsume yelled at him, before slamming the door shut. Once she did, she put both of her hands on her cheeks, which were white hot due to the blush still on her face.

'What the hell is wrong with me!?' Hatsume asked herself, looking back at the door that Bakugo walked out of. Meanwhile, Bakugo was walking back to his room, his face the complete opposite of the playful smirk he had with Hatsume, and was also dealing with a massive blush on his face. The only thing in his mind was Mei Hatsume, no matter how many times he tried to think of something else.

"What the fuck is wrong with me?" Bakugo asked himself with his hands on his blushed cheeks.


	3. Chapter 3

**Three Days Later…**

Bakugo was sitting at his desk in class with a smile on his face. For the past few days, he and Hatsume had been working on his supersuit, and he was really happy with the progress they had made. Before he could further indulge in his thoughts, he felt a piece of paper hit him in the back of the head, causing him to get angry and immediately spin his head to look behind him.

"Alright, who the fuck threw that!?" Bakugo yelled, looking around at the various faces of the students shaking their heads. However, before he turned back around, Denki Kamanari raised his hand.

"Sorry man," Kamanari said, putting his hands up in a joking manner while chuckling.

"You better have a good reason for tossing this garbage at me, fucker!" Bakugo yelled, burning the ball of paper into ashes.

"Hey, hey! No need to get angry. I was just wondering about why you've been smiling so much lately. It's honestly creepy how happy you've been," Kamanari joked, with a smirk on his face. Bakugo huffed and rolled his eyes in response.

"What the hell is it to you?" Bakugo asked, with veins appearing on his temples.

"Well, you have to hang out with that freak Hatsume all the damn time. I mean, she was so creepy and weird when I talked to her, I thought she was missing a few screws. And I only had to deal with her for a day. That must really suck, having to deal with her crazy…" Kamanari soliloquized before being stopped by one of Bakugo's blasts.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU GODDAMN LIGHTNING ROD LOSER!" Bakugo screamed at Kamanari's unconscious body, causing everyone to look at Bakugo with surprised and scared expressions on their face. Bakugo was known for violence and random attacks on people, but Bakugo never usually beat people up for insulting others. After a few seconds of Bakugo staring a hole through Kamanari, Bakugo looked around the classroom, and saw all the looks that the class was giving him.

"What the fuck are all you idiots looking at, huh!?" Bakugo yelled, before storming out of the room, with a light pink blush on his face. As soon as he left, the class fell into a stunned silence that was only broken when Todoroki decided to chime in.

"At least things will be quiet in here for a change," Todoroki mumbled with a shrug.

Outside of the classroom, Bakugo paced back and forth in front of another classroom, trying to relax and get rid of the blush on his face that had gotten darker.

"What the hell was that? Why the Goddamn hell did I care about what that stupid Lightning Rod thought of Weird Eyes?" Bakugo mumbled to himself, clenching is fists so hard that explosions were starting to erupt. Bakugo decided to go back to his room for the day, and try and calm himself down. He also wanted to think of something other than Hatsume, who had been permanently etched into his mind for the past few days. Bakugo grumbled expletives to himself while walking back to his dorm.

 **Meanwhile with Hatsume…**

Mei Hatsume was busy working on Bakugo's gauntlets, adding the upgrades that she had promised. She had been adding multiple grenade tags to the gauntlets, and was in the middle of adding heaters to the inside of the gauntlets while happily humming. Power Loader came into the workshop, and put a package on the table next to her.

"Mei, a package came for you," Power Loader said, pointing to a small but long cardboard box.

"The tubes finally came! Great, I can finally finish Bakugo's gauntlets. I'll put them in after I finish the heater," Mei responded, leaving Power Loader confused.

"Wait…have you just been working on these gauntlets this whole time?" Power Loader asked.

"Yeah…is there a problem with that?" Mei asked, putting the gauntlets down.

"No, not really. It's just that I've never seen you focus on one invention in a day. Whenever I see you, you're working on three inventions at a time. I don't know how you do it, but that's pretty much what I see you do when it comes to your inventions," Power Loader explained.

"So…what's your point? I feel bad for not giving Bakugo results as soon as I would've liked, so I want to work hard on these gauntlets," Mei responded, holding up one of Bakugo's gauntlets, nearly shoving it in Power Loader's face.

"My point is that you've never had this problem with anyone else. I saw you working on Midoriya, Uaraka, and Iida's costumes at the exact same time, so it's a bit weird that you're focusing on this one guy's costume," Power Loader further explained. Before Mei could explain herself, Power Loader snapped his fingers and pointed at Hatsume.

"Oh, I know what's going on now," Power Loader said with a twinge of excitement in his voice. Mei, not being used to hearing excitement from Power Loader, raised her eyebrows and tilted her head.

"What're you talking about?" Hatsume asked, growing impatient as she wanted to go back to work.

"Come on Hatsume, you're a smart girl, you obviously like this boy," Power Loader stated. Hatsume's face was blank for a couple of seconds, and started blushing and breathing heavily.

"WH…WH..WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" Hatsume screeched, putting her hands on her cheeks, something she had been doing a lot of these past few days.

"I've seen how you talk to and act around this Bakugo person. While I think he's an annoying brat and I don't see what people see in him, you clearly see…something in him," Power Loader explained.

"I…I don't know what you're talking about! We…were just being friendly. Plus, Bakugo is a lot nicer if you get to know him," Hatsume again screeched, with her blush growing darker.

"How do you know that, you've known him for a few days," Power Loader retorted, leaving Hatsume at a loss for words. Feeling like he had proven is point, Power Loader headed towards the door. "Don't forget to lock up when you're done," Power Loader reminded her before heading out the door. After the door closed, Hatsume started breathing in order to calm herself down, and tried to think of something other than the explosive teen.

"Stupid Power Loader, getting these stupid thoughts in my head! I don't love that hair triggered idiot! I…don't," Hatsume said to herself before going back to work, hoping to lose her mind in the finishing of the heater.


	4. Chapter 4

**A Few Hours Later…**

After a few hours of playing video games, Bakugo was a lot more relaxed than he was in class, but he was still unable to take Hatsume out of his mind. No matter how engaged he got into Fairy Story, his brain still kept Hatsume practically glued in his mind. After getting killed in the game, he threw the controller to the ground and started hitting his head with his hand.

"Get…out…of…my…head!" Bakugo yelled to himself in between self-inflicted shots to the head. Just then, Bakugo's phone vibrated. When Bakugo picked it up, it displayed a text from Hatsume, simply saying 'It's almost ready'.

"About Goddamn time," Bakugo muttered to himself, before getting up and walking to the workshop. During his walk, he considered checking on Kamanari, who he heard was with Recovery Girl getting his wounds checked. After some time thinking, he decided that he would go after he got his gauntlets back. He wasn't heartless after all.

When Bakugo got to the workshop, he could hear the sound of a blowtorch being used, and a hammer being hit on metal. When he opened the door, he saw Hatsume seemingly putting the finishing touches on his gauntlets. However, as he got closer, he realized that she was sweating profusely and had a red blush on her face. To Bakugo, it looked as though she was overworking herself, which made Bakugo feel like he got kicked in the stomach.

"HEY!" Bakugo yelled, getting Hatsume's attention.

"Hey…Bakugo. I'm…almost done…with the…gauntlets," Hatsume said with a smile on her face, but paused after almost every word to take a deep breath.

"Forget about that, are you alright? You look like you're about to pass out and die," Bakugo asked.

"I'm fine. I…I'm…just a…little…a little…tired," Mei mumbled, still focused on the gauntlets and still breathing heavily in between words. Mei then started coughing aggressively, which Bakugo responded with a worried expression on his face. After a few seconds of looking at Mei, Bakugo's face went from worried to determined, and he picked up Hatsume bridal style.

"Hey! What're you doing!?" Hatsume yelled while Bakugo walked to the door and opened it with his foot.

"You're taking a break whether you like it or not!" Bakugo yelled back at her, while heading for the exit. Hatsume was hitting him on the chest, which didn't affect Bakugo at all.

"I don't need a break! I need to work on my babies!" Hatsume yelled, hitting Bakugo even harder. Once she saw that her hits were still not affecting Bakugo, she sighed and looked up at Bakugo, who still had the determined look on his face one would have when one would save someone from a burning building. "Bakugo…"

"Shut it, Weird Eyes! I saw you back there, and you looked like you were going to fucking pass out! And it was working on my invention that made you that tired, so I'm taking you out to eat, and I don't want to hear any more Goddamn complaints," Bakugo explained, causing Hatsume to blush.

"You know if you're going to kidnap me, you can at least call me by my actual name," Hatsume mumbled.

"Just be quiet Weird Eyes until we get food," Bakugo said. Hatsume sighed, hiding her face in Bakugo's shirt, which caused Bakugo to blush. After ten minutes of walking, the two made it to a burger place.

"We're here, you can get down now," Bakugo said, letting Hatsume get on her own feet, allowing her to punch him in the stomach.

"That's for kidnapping me. I hope you're paying for this," Hatsume stated, pointing to the restaurant while Bakugo was clutching his stomach and glaring at Hatsume.

"Yeah, whatever," Bakugo mumbled before he opened the door, and held it for Hatsume. Hatsume smiled before she went through the door, and poked Bakugo's side.

"Such a gentleman," Hatsume mumbled, rolling her eyes and walking to a seat near the door. Bakugo grumbled at her and followed her to that seat. Before they could start talking, a waitress came up, and gave them menus.

"Hello, welcome to Ultra Burger, may I take your order?" the waitress said with a smile on her face. Hatsume had just started looking over the menu and the wide variety of burgers they offered, before Bakugo, without touching the menu, turned to the waitress.

"I'll have the spicy jalapeño burger," Bakugo ordered, getting Hatsume's interest.

"Oh! I'll have that too!" Hatsume exclaimed, raising her hand up like she was in elementary school.

"Wait…you like spicy food too?" Bakugo asked as the waitress left with their menus to get their food.

"Yeah, spicy food just has that kick normal food doesn't have," Hatsume smiled, leaving Bakugo's face a blushing mess. Just then, their food came, and they started eating. However, they were surprisingly chatty during their meal. They talked about their favorite things, which were pretty much the same as each other, such as their favorite TV shows, favorite flavors of ice cream, and their favorite book series. When they weren't finding out about things they had in common with each other, they just went through their day.

"So, you actually made a robot that destroys buildings?" Bakugo asked, with interest and excitement evident in his voice.

"Well, it was supposed to be a construction robot, but something went wrong, and it found another purpose. That's why I always say that failure is the mother of invention!" Hatsume exclaimed, making Bakugo genuinely smile, something that he hasn't done in a long time. Before he could say anything, he heard frightened screams from everyone else in the restaurant. When he turned around, he saw the black jumpsuit and white eyes of Vanguard Action Squad member Twice.

"Alright everyone, this is a robbery. I'm gonna need you to hand over all your money and…" Twice demanded before he stopped and turned to Bakugo. "HEY! I know you! Who are you again?" Twice said, contradicting himself as he pointed at Bakugo. Bakugo responded by sending a punch Twice's way. Twice dodged the punch and the two exchanged blows and dodges for the next couple of minutes.

"Come on, is that all you got!?" Twice yelled, before he almost tripped from one of Bakugo's explosions. "Hey come on man, take it easy!" Twice whined, still dodging Bakugo's attacks. Bakugo rocketed two inches in front of Twice, but Twice was one step ahead by hitting Bakugo with a knee to the face. With Bakugo stunned, Twice hit another knee to Bakugo's face. This time, the kneecap of Twice nailed Bakugo right in the eye.

"MOTHERFUCKER!" Bakugo yelled, preparing to blast Twice. However, Bakugo's right eye couldn't remain open for more than a second due to the pain from the knee. This prevented him from aiming his arm properly. Twice ran to Bakugo and kicked him under the chin. Twice pulls a knife from his belt, and holds it to Bakugo's throat.

"Well kid, looks like it's your time to die," Twice stated threateningly, moving the knife to cut his throat. Before Bakugo or anyone else in the restaurant could do anything, there was a loud popping sound. When Bakugo opened his left eye, he could see Twice trapped in a net. When he tilted his head up, he saw Hatsume with her patent pending net gun in her hand, with smoke coming out of the barrel. Hatsume winked at Bakugo, who gave her a smirk and a nod in return.

"Hey! What's going on!? Get me out of this thing!" Twice yelled, flailing inside the net. But all of the sudden, he stopped. "Actually, it's not so bad in here," Twice muttered to himself, not noticing that one of the waiters had called the police.

"We should probably leave," Bakugo muttered to Hatsume, who was still eating her burger.

"But I'm not finished yet," Hatsume said, pointing to her unfinished burger, and fries that she barely touched. Bakugo grabbed Hatsume's hand, and ran out of the restaurant after throwing down some money on their table.

"I SAID WE HAVE TO GO!" Bakugo yelled, leading Hatsume out of the restaurant. While they were running, Bakugo could hear the piercing sound of police sirens and see the glaring red and blue lights, breathing a sigh of relief knowing that he made it out of there in time.


End file.
